10 Actors Who Were REJECTED For Recent Movies (And Why)
The timing sadly didn't work out for Nathan Fillion on Uncharted.
Hollywood sure is a fickle industry, where careers can be made and destroyed overnight. Getting cast in the right role can see an actor's profile immediately skyrocket, ensuring more lucrative offers come across their table from that point on.
But even the most famous, beloved, and acclaimed of actors will be extremely familiar with rejection, of being turned down from a role for one of the many possible reasons that a filmmaker might decide to go in another direction.
Yes, a lot of the time it comes down to the ever-pesky scheduling conflicts, an issue that's become increasingly challenging for actors to deal with over the last two years in particular.
Elsewhere there are other, more unexpected reasons, though, like in-fighting between a director and his producers over a certain casting pick, arcane contractual stipulations, and perhaps even a personal scandal or two that immediately engulfed an actor's prospects.
Whatever the reason, these 10 actors were ultimately turned down and left unable to appear in these huge movies. In some cases the final choice totally paid off, while in others we'll be forever left wondering, "what if?"...
10. Zazie Beetz - The Batman
The Role: Selena Kyle aka Catwoman, as was eventually played by Zoë Kravitz.
Why She Was Rejected: Beetz auditioned among numerous other actresses, with director Matt Reeves' shortlist coming down to Kravitz, Beetz, and Eiza González.
Reeves was said to be "very high" on Beetz and favouring her for the part, but there was one major hurdle that resulted in her being rejected from the project: the ever-troubling scheduling conflicts.
Beetz had already committed to filming the third season of Donald Glover's hit dramedy series Atlanta, with plans for it to film back-to-back with the fourth.
With Reeves unable to push The Batman's production back months for Beetz's sake alone, the decision was made to move on without her, and Kravitz was ultimately cast instead.
Ironically, though, the impact of the pandemic resulted in Atlanta's shoot being delayed until several weeks after The Batman wrapped, so Beetz could've actually shot both parts without any conflict.
Hindsight is 20:20 of course, especially where the pandemic is concerned, and it's tough to argue with Kravitz's fantastic work in the part even if Beetz would've been absolutely killer also.